Does a WHS meet my needs?

J

jazzman161

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 6, 2004
Messages
220
Hey all. I've been considering building a WHS for my home for file storage but what I really want out of it is to stream media to my xbox 360, either wired or wirelessly, depending where I place the box. Now I know WHS can stream to the 360, but my issue is with mkv containers, which the 360 doesn't natively support. Would your typical WHS hardware be able to convert or transcode on the fly? I'd love to have 4-5TBs of storage but what good does it do me if I can't get the 360 to play any of the files on there.

I'm thinking of building the WHS out of the following hardware for reference:
X2 4850e
ASUS M3A78-CM
2GB DDR2-800

Anybody have any ideas or perhaps there's somebody out there who was in my situation at one time? Thanks a lot!
 
Q9450 machine 2 @ 3.2ghz, stock, 2400pro pci-e, 4870x2 visiontek, DFI LP LT X48-T2R, 8GB G.Skill DDR2-1000, 1.2kW SS ST1200 modular PSU, 750gb seagate, 37w3se lcd , 2 x 24'' DYLM24D6 lcd
Q9450 machine 1 @ 3.2ghz, stock, x600 pci-e, DFI LP LT X38-T2R, 4GB G.Skill DDR2-1000, 1kW CM PSU, Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 ATSC/ClearQAM/NTSC TV Tuner PCI, 11.25TB.
T7250 Dell D630, NVS135M video, 4gb DDR2-800, 120gb seagate, 14 inch 1400x900 screen, 4965 wifi N,15 cell battery
 
I use WMC to stream video to my xbox using unraid so I can't vouch for what you want to do with WHS.

One thing to note if you want to transcode on the fly you'll need more than 2GB of RAM for this. double it to 4GB as it will suck allot of processing power and RAM to do it's job.
 
If you want to stream media in MKV containers (to an Xbox360), just say NO to transcoding. http://xenonmkv.ev98.net/

Takes under a minute to repackage a 720p video, and roughly 2 minutes to repackage a 1080p movie. The video stream is left completely untouched, and since h264 video is only compatible with 2.0 AAC audio when played back on the Xbox360, it downmixes the AC3 or DTS audio stream to 2.0 AAC. Gives you a nice Xbox360 compatible .MP4 file with NO visual quality loss.
 
criccio said:
If you want to stream media in MKV containers (to an Xbox360), just say NO to transcoding. http://xenonmkv.ev98.net/

Takes under a minute to repackage a 720p video, and roughly 2 minutes to repackage a 1080p movie. The video stream is left completely untouched, and since h264 video is only compatible with 2.0 AAC audio when played back on the Xbox360, it downmixes the AC3 or DTS audio stream to 2.0 AAC. Gives you a nice Xbox360 compatible .MP4 file with NO visual quality loss.
Click to expand...

Yea thats exactly what I was about to post.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. After thinking about it, I don't think the xbox meets my needs, LOL. It's too limited (file size and 2ch audio are kinda crippling). I can still build my WHS but I'll now need to convert one of my other PCs into an quasi-HTPC.

Question regarding that. If the WHS is hosting my mkv or wmv-hd files, and I want to view them on my tv thru the HTPC, does the HTPC build some sort of file buffer locally before running the file? My main concern is wirelessly transmitting the data from the WHS to the HTPC. Is there enough bandwidth to stream 720p mkv? (G-speed wifi)
 
Never.. ever.. consider WiFi for HD streaming. Even in the same room, you are going to need 802.11n for a completely stable streaming experience.

I know alot of people on this forum don't know about or use MoCA, but if you have a coax drop where the server is, and one with the HTPC is, you can use a MoCA bridge to do Ethernet over coax. PM me if you want more information on it.
 
tanujpadhy said:
Q9450 machine 2 @ 3.2ghz, stock, 2400pro pci-e, 4870x2 visiontek, DFI LP LT X48-T2R, 8GB G.Skill DDR2-1000, 1.2kW SS ST1200 modular PSU, 750gb seagate, 37w3se lcd , 2 x 24'' DYLM24D6 lcd
Q9450 machine 1 @ 3.2ghz, stock, x600 pci-e, DFI LP LT X38-T2R, 4GB G.Skill DDR2-1000, 1kW CM PSU, Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 ATSC/ClearQAM/NTSC TV Tuner PCI, 11.25TB.
T7250 Dell D630, NVS135M video, 4gb DDR2-800, 120gb seagate, 14 inch 1400x900 screen, 4965 wifi N,15 cell battery
Click to expand...

wat
 
Moca is ok I just found it to be expensive.

I just changed all the telephone jacks to cat 5 jacks.
Most the time they use cat5 wire for the telephones.
Then just put some of the connections onto the switch and the others stay on the telephone switch.
 
nitrobass24 said:
Moca is ok I just found it to be expensive.

I just changed all the telephone jacks to cat 5 jacks.
Most the time they use cat5 wire for the telephones.
Then just put some of the connections onto the switch and the others stay on the telephone switch.
Click to expand...

Hmm, MI424WR routers (which you put into bridge mode) are selling on ebay for $20.. they work great as MoCA bridges. I get roughly 230Mbps around my house with my existing RG6 coax lines. While its not Gigabit speed, I didn't have to run CAT5 and its still twice as fast as Fast Ethernet.
 
O cool I havent seen those.

Yea those would work well, and be cheap too.
 
Yup, its the way to get fast reliable Ethernet in your house without having to run CAT5 and its still not very well known.
 
Thanks for the info criccio but running wire or using existing coax is not an option considering where the equipment is installed. I'll have to brainstorm on this and see if I can move things around. The main goal for the WHS is to serve up HD files and if it can't do that, there's no point in building it.

Thanks again!
 
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